The Hotel
by Alma
Summary: Finding yourself alone in a foggy town is bad news...


An unmistakable fear gripped me as I stared into the darkness of what I had taken to be the hotel lobby. It was the sensation of being watched, but from where I dared not investigate. Direction mattered not in this pitch black room, but I held my hands in front of me and slowly took another step. Judging by the echoing of my footsteps, the floor must be marble and the lobby must be huge. The last light I had seen was in my hotel room two floors up where I had awoken, yet my eyes had no light to adjust to here. Once I had left my room, the entire building was devoid of any illumination.

I tried to imagine the sanctity of that room and contemplated returning to it, but determination to reach the outside overcame my irrational fears. I took another step, slowly waving my hands in the air around me to determine the location of any obstacles. There were none.

I had checked in last night and nothing had appeared odd. Nothing had caught my attention and yet now as I was stumbling around in the utter darkness of it all, I regretted not paying more attention to the detail of where the main entrance was located. It had taken considerable time to find the staircase from the third floor hallway and make my way down to what I assumed was the main floor. I distinctly remember the lobby being much smaller though.

Moving forward slowly, I pictured the hotel lobby as I had seen it last night. It was carpeted, I thought, but I could have been mistaken. I had arrived so late and I was exhausted from driving nearly six hours that I was beginning to wonder if this all wasn't some dream.

Awakened in the middle of the night (the exact time eludes me since I had left my wristwatch in the car) with only a single lamp functioning in the room and the silence practically deafening, I was compelled to open my room door. Normally, I would have simply gone back to sleep and presumed a temporary brownout, declaring my own room the unexplainable exception, and think nothing more of it, but a creeping feeling of dread came coupled with the silence, and the urge to leave that room became irresistible.

The light from that single lamp faded once I reached the end of the adjacent hallway, but still I did not hear nor see anything. It was from the moment I found the stairwell that I began to feel a strange blanket of comfort as the darkness concealed me entirely. I closed my eyes and imagined myself invisible inside this giant entity, enclosed in its embrace.

Two floors down, I emerged onto the marble floored lobby and that sensation evaporated, replaced with the fear of being watched. My blanket was no longer comforting and the necessity of finding the exit door became greater. I made no audible sound aside from my footsteps and eventually I reached a large steel door, the touch of it surprisingly cold amid the tepid climate. This was not the main entrance.

I resisted my own curiosity and moved away from the chilling door, feeling the very cold emanating from it dissipate as I walked further from it. The thought of such a door behind me and what could possible come from within said door escalated my fear tremendously and soon I heard the faintest banging.

Whether the sound was real or merely a hallucination did not matter to me. I was choking with fright and quickened my pace, running blindly in the direct opposite of that door. The rhythmic banging grew louder in my ears, yet I could not determine a precise location or even direction of the origin.

I was shaking with terror, the idea of that door suddenly opening and spilling whatever contents out into the darkness at my heels was overwhelming. I ran faster and suddenly collided with another door – double doors actually, made of smooth wood with slight aesthetic carvings. Without hesitation I felt for the handle and threw them open, relieved to have finally discovered what had to be the main entrance, judging by the height, weight, and probable grandeur of the doors.

I was greeted by immediate brightness so stark in contrast from the eternal darkness of the interior that my eyes instinctively snapped shut. The loud banging had subsided and the dead silence returned. I pulled the doors shut behind me and sheltered my eyes with my hands, gingerly opening them slightly.

It took me several moments to realize I was encompassed entirely by thick fog and it was faintly morning. Surely I hadn't been walking in that darkness for more than half an hour, and yet time must have passed for now it was clearly morning.

I peered behind me at the large hotel. Its façade was identical to how I remembered it the previous night, but this fog was so thick I could see nothing else. A shiver ran along my skin as I realized how alone and utterly lost I was in an unfamiliar town with nothing to guide me.


End file.
